Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

People are weird.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Second rate reporter says what?

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / If You See Something, Say Something: Insider Threat Indicators For Recruitment

If You See Something, Say Something: Insider Threat Indicators For Recruitment

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I did my required, annual insider threat training today. One bit of information stood out far more this year than it is ever had before.

Insider threat indicators:

Recruitment

  • Reportable indicators of recruitment include, but are not limited to:
  • Unreported request for critical assets1 outside official channels
  • Unreported or frequent foreign travel
  • Suspicious foreign contacts
  • Contact with an individual who is known to be, or is suspected of being, associated with foreign intelligence, security, or terrorism
  • Unreported offer of financial assistance, gifts, or favors by a foreign national or stranger: Beware of those bearing gifts

1 “Critical assets” are assets essential to an organization’s mission or to national security that, if exploited, could result in serious harm. They include: classified information; proprietary information; intellectual property; trade secrets; personnel security.

I just can’t quite put my finger on why this stood out at me more this year…

So remember: if you see something, say something!

Stay frosty!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

128Comments

  5. 5.

    Baud

    annual insider threat training today

    Probably the first year when the training produced howls of laughter from the trainees.

  7. 7.

    jl

    Nothing about someone griping around the water cooler about famous porn stars they had sex with, who probably have pix, but they won’t abide by the NDA? What kind of crummy insider threat indicator for recruitment training is that?

  10. 10.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I did the same training a year ago (required for all USDOT employees whether they handle any type of sensitive material or not). Noted the same thing and furthermore my training included a list of psychosocial warning signs including anger, resentment, etc. that also fit a certain person to a T.

  15. 15.

    Brachiator

    I did my required, annual insider threat training today. One bit of information stood out far more this year than it is ever had before.

    Insider threat indicators

    This is very sad and very funny.

  16. 16.

    RSA

    I went through training a few months ago, and when I came across this report in NY Magazine,

    Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, whose inability to obtain permanent security clearance has come under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks, requests more information from the intelligence community than any other White House employee who isn’t working on the National Security Council, according to an unnamed source who spoke with the Washington Post.

    I immediately thought of this red flag:

    Attempting to expand access to critical assets by repeatedly volunteering for assignments or duties beyond the normal scope of responsibilities

  19. 19.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I remember that, when I was stationed in Germany, the markers were spending a lot of money relative to income, driving a sports car, taking frequent trips to other countries. My buddy and I used to talk about it as we drove in his Porsche to go skiing in Austria and Switzerland every weekend we could.

  20. 20.

    Mary G

    Open thread?

    Politico Magazine has a feature on a dark horse Democratic presidential candidate who’s a great alternative to Bernie/Joe/Elizabeth and other grey hairs. His name is Pete Buttigieg and he’s the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

    Buttigieg, 36, is getting closer to a presidential race. And serious people are telling the South Bend, Indiana, mayor, who’d be the first major presidential candidate who’s openly gay, an Afghanistan veteran or a millennial, to take it seriously.

    I like him and I’ve been following him on twitter since he did unexpectedly well in the race to head the DNC (and between Tom Perez and Keith Ellison, getting attention is an achievement.)

    There’s no winning the 2020 Democratic campaign, Buttigieg told the ballroom, that includes the words “back” or “again.”

    “There’s no going back. There’s no ‘again’ to be had. Things are going to be different,” Buttigieg explained later, in the podcast. “There was a liberal era in American politics that lasted 30 or 40 years, followed by a conservative era that lasted 30 or 40 years. And now, we’re on the doorstep of a new era.”

    When he sets up a committee, I am going to donate. He’s perfect foil for Twitler and I can see the #MarchForOurLives kidz really going for him.

  23. 23.

    lamh36

    This witch was wrong, and spread this bullshit far and wide and now it’s too damn late…cause now the usual folks calling her retraction FAKE NEWS. She was looking for something to discredit one of the Parkland kids…so she took an doctored video and ran full tilt with it. Of course nothing will happen to her…Redstate will just keep on trucking along…but I hope that karma does it’s due diligence on this heffa. And I’m with Soledad…this is a lame azz apology.

    I’ll link to Soledad’s tweet, but not a direct link to that woman…

    @soledadobrien
    A sloppy reporter apologizes for calling a teenager who survived a mass shooting a liar in a long, and lame apology. Jesus
    https://twitter.com/soledadobrien/status/978773482304655362

  24. 24.

    Dmbeaster

    The revelation that Kushner sought secret back channel communications is just gigantic. There was no proper purpose for doing that. It has guilt written all over it.. It seems lost in all the other sleaze, and also it has not been disclosed what the purpose was, so it simmers below the surface. Some day more of this story will be known.

  25. 25.

    JMG

    In 2000, I was lucky enough to cover the Sydney Olympics for my paper. One slow day, I thought that the dog and pony show to be held by the Beijing 2008 committee would be a good story. It was, kind of, mostly because the Chinese speakers were so much like the Atlanta Olympic Committee in so many ways (nix to the solidarity of the proletariat, up with local boosterism) as to amuse me. But the highlight came after the press op when I and the Philadelphia writer who was the only other American there were approached by a beautiful young woman in a suit that cost more than my car who was with the Beijing delegation and asked us if she could video interviews with us. Sure. We weren’t going to turn her down. She asked some boilerplate questions and I truthfully said it would be neat to see China, as did the Philly guy. It was only later we realized she hadn’t been really filming us, she’d been filming the Olympic ID photocard hung around our necks. Somewhere in the bowels of the Forbidden City is me, listed as an unwitting agent of the People’s Republic. I was out of the newspaper business before 2008, so the flirtation never got past that, I guess.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    @lamh36:

    What more could you expect from someone at Redstate? Right now, there’s a guy on a FB friend’s post insisting that Hogg is questionable because his father is with the CIA. I’m ticked because I can’t report the post.

  29. 29.

    Calouste

    @Mary G: Being mayor of a city of 100,000 is not enough experience to run for President. Let him go for something in between first. And yeah, it sucks that he is from Indiana, where it might be hard for him to become Governor or Senator.

    ETA: that he thinks he can run for president with his limited experience is a major disqualifier for me.

  31. 31.

    debbie

    A description of a PBS show broadcasting tonight:

    An astrophysicist, preacher, philosopher and artisanal mortician reflect on universal questions of mortality and rethink the place of human beings in the universe.

    What the heck is an artisanal mortician???

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    Today I got to make someone scan his ID badge before I would let him through the gate behind me. But because of where I work, I did it with a big “have a magical day!” smile. ?

  36. 36.

    lamh36

    Open thread…ok…so…um this happned –>

    @usweekly
    Follow Follow @usweekly
    More
    Topshop heiress Chloe Green is pregnant with her first child with ‘hot felon’ Jeremy Meeks

    I can’t be the ONLY one who thought of the Dave Chappelle…Oprah skit when reading this…LOL

    Dave Gets Oprah Pregnant – Uncensored https://on.cc.com/QD9AYR via @comedycentral

  37. 37.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    Probably the first year when the training produced howls of laughter from the trainees.

    Reminds me of the Farside cartoon where every sheep in the flock turns out to be a wolf in drag.

  39. 39.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    Because people waiting in line for two hours, wondering if they’re going to make their flight, wouldn’t be angry or resentful.

    How would they notice when they’re stuck on their smartphone?

  40. 40.

    TenguPhule

    @divF:

    does The Mouse have a plutonium facility ?

    She could tell you, but then she’d have to kill you.

  41. 41.

    Jay

    @debbie:

    Morticians who assist the Family in bringing back some of the friends and family involvement in death and burial, rather than for profit funerals.

  42. 42.

    efgoldman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    driving a sports car, taking frequent trips to other countries.

    When I was a lad, and dad was stationed in Germany, all the young single officers bought sports cars and spent the weekends and off days driving to other countries.

  43. 43.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    all the young single officers bought sports cars and spent the weekends and off days driving to other countries.

    So to France then?

  48. 48.

    efgoldman

    @divF:

    That is some pretty rigorous security

    Hell, when I worked at Enormous Brokerage and Mutual Funds LLC, at an office park in the middle of nowhere, we had to swipe photo RFD IDs to get into the building, to get access to certain floors, and to get into certain workspace. Always seemed like overkill to me.

  51. 51.

    efgoldman

    @TenguPhule:

    So to France then?

    Luxemourg, Holland, Denmark, other parts of Germany (Bavaria was popular). Actually any place not under Soviet occupation.

  52. 52.

    Jeffro

    @jl:

    Nothing about someone griping around the water cooler about famous porn stars they had sex with, who probably have pix, but they won’t abide by the NDA? What kind of crummy insider threat indicator for recruitment training is that?

    It’s a little specific, is all I’m saying. You can’t prepare for every possibility.

    Besides, what kind of moron would let himself get set up like that? Totes unrealistic…

  53. 53.

    Kathleen

    My youngest brother lives in a huge apartment complex in a northern Cincinnati neighborhood. Several years ago, a Russian woman occupied an apartment a couple of floors down from his unit. They would meet as they were entering or leaving the building and eventually became somewhat friendly. If I recall she had a killer plant. They went to a concert together and she invited him to a party which included only other Russians. We joked that he was probably consorting with Russian spies.

    A day or two after Feds busted a Russian gambling ring back east (in 2013), she suddenly moved without warning or farewell. We both thought that move was not coincidental. She left the killer plant.

  55. 55.

    Miss Bianca

    @Calouste: Well, tbf, Mayor of South Bend is one metric shit-ton more political experience than the current PO(TU)S had upon taking office.

  57. 57.

    Jay

    @debbie:

    Yes, and no. Once upon a time, families, friends and the community, with some help from a Minister, would manage the death and funeral process, which would often last up to a week.

    It would require intimate contact with the body, often some rituals long since abandoned, gifts of service from the community, and was often a core part of the grieving process.

  58. 58.

    Kelly

    @efgoldman: When I worked for Gigantic Global Tech Corp my cube was in a small rented building near the main campus with absolutely terrible card locks. Often took 5~6 swipes to get in. One day in frustration I tried slipping the card into the latch like in the movies and IT WORKED. Eventually someone in management noticed me and decent locks were installed. I retained an undeserved rep as an ace hacker.

  63. 63.

    Corner Stone

    @lamh36: And that no good, low down dirty swamp POS Sarah Rumpf shows up alllll the time in NeverTrumper’s twit feeds.
    And that is to say, a reminder that I hate Tom Nichols’ fucking guts. He was also criticizing David Hogg earlier today. In very specious ways.

  67. 67.

    danielx

    @debbie:

    What the heck is an artisanal mortician???

    Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe they stuff skulls with brie?

  68. 68.

    Jay

    ar·ti·san·al
    ärˈtēzən(ə)l/Submit
    adjective
    relating to or characteristic of an artisan.
    “artisanal skills”
    (of a product, especially food or drink) made in a traditional or non-mechanized way.
    “artisanal cheeses”

  71. 71.

    Mary G

    @Calouste: @Miss Bianca: Obama had less administrative experience when he was elected president. More from the profile:

    Yes, Buttigieg has no clear path forward in Indiana politics. Yes, he would be the first openly gay presidential candidate, let alone president. He really did return to South Bend after Harvard and a Rhodes scholarship. He has a hard name for politics (it’s Maltese, translating to roughly “lord of the poultry”). Yes, he knows it’s ridiculous to actually think about jumping from a City Hall for 101,000 people to the White House, but serious people have been pushing him to run, and he is seriously thinking about it.

    Nowhere to go?

    “I understand where that narrative comes from,” he said. “But again, I think it underestimates the role of surprise in politics.”

    Of course, YMMV. The end:

    But before that, he started with Trump.

    “Every day this president is in office, he yanks out a thread of what it means to be an American,” Buttigieg said, “and he will keep pulling one thread at a time, unraveling what it means to be an American, until our republic is just a tangled mess of yarn in his little hands.”

    He went on, “Americans already know that lying is wrong. That racism is wrong. That denigrating women is wrong. … They all know about him. They’re waiting to see who’ll be talking about them.”

    By 2021, many Democrats assume, this will end with Buttigieg in Washington, one way or another.

    “Pete’s going to be a force in the Democratic Party,” said Axelrod. “The question is just whether that’s as a candidate for president, or something else.”

  73. 73.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Jay:

    And I was assuming it had to do with old-school mummification, maybe Viking-style pyres and burials at sea.

  74. 74.

    danielx

    @Mary G:

    “Americans already know that lying is wrong. That racism is wrong. That denigrating women is wrong. … They all know about him. They’re waiting to see who’ll be talking about them.”

    Some Americans, anyway.

  75. 75.

    Gelfling 545

    @Calouste: I want to see people with at least SOME foreign policy exposure running. It’s going to be a big job unwinding this mess.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    What other offices has he held? Obama was both a state and a US senator and had held elective office for a dozen years before 2008.

  78. 78.

    danielx

    @Gelfling 545:

    Well, there is his experience in dealing with both South Bend’s black and Polish-extraction populations, which is a pretty sharp divide.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gelfling 545:

    Why do you think the propaganda against Hillary continues from the left? The last thing the Russians want is for a former Secretary of State to get involved in unwinding this mess, and they’ll do everything they can to smear anyone who tries to enlist Hillary’s help.

  81. 81.

    Chyron HR

    @Mary G:

    Wow, we haven’t even had the midterms yet and already we’ve selected 2020’s One True Candidate Who Must be Nominated or the World Will Be Destroyed For Denying His Glory. Glad to see the left is on top of things.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: A mortician that uses extra virgin olive oil and Himalayan salt in his or her proprietary embalming fluid.//

  84. 84.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I thought you were going to mention the story about how Jared requested more intel by far than anyone else, which I’m sure included plenty outside his need-to-know. Indicator #1.

  86. 86.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: And overseas employees of US Flag Carriers (Airlines). A fair number of the kids I went to MS/HS with had spent a couple-three years in EU boarding schools while their parents were loaned to national airlines in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and east Africa. The kid I used to babysit spent his MS/HS in boarding school while his parents were loaned from TWA to Olympic and Saudia. A kid in 8th grade has spent his K-2 years in Switzerland while his parents were in Ethiopia.

    I hope the training goes beyond the “foreign travel” to “look at the context of same”.

    Edited for spelling

  87. 87.

    moops

    we sort of got off the lead teaser, which I’d like folks to get back on. People like Jared sure do set off a lot of the checklist red flags. But really, foreign assets? Do we think there are really foreign recruited agents in the White House? This bunch of people are idiots. Does having a idiot as a deep plant asset help?

  88. 88.

    moops

    Why recruit an idiot like JarJar when the doofus gives intel to people like the crown prince of Saudi Arabia for free.

  90. 90.

    Gravenstone

    @Chyron HR: don’t be an ass. Huge difference in expressing a rooting interest in a prospective candidate and anointing them the one true savior.

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    @moops:

    Do we think there are really foreign recruited agents in the White House?

    What do you think Michael Flynn was?

    And keep in mind that you can recruit people who don’t realize they’ve been recruited because they think that you’re helping them do what they want. This whole crew strikes me as people who are both stupid and easy to manipulate, which is exactly what a spymaster would want.

  97. 97.

    Jay

    @moops:

    Yup, it helps. Look at the history of foreign spies in the US. Not many Bonds, or Ludlum characters, or even any of Smilie’s crew.

    Mostly compromised individuals with access, who manage one way or another to avoid the checks long enough, often through mismanagement.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    And yet the writer’s pinned tweet is still a defense of poor, beleaguered Marco Rubio. So, yeah, eff her.

  103. 103.

    Corner Stone

    @moops:

    Why recruit an idiot like JarJar when the doofus gives intel to people like the crown prince of Saudi Arabia for free.

    Case to be made it was not for free.

  106. 106.

    EBT

    @efgoldman: At Valve in Seattle, the building they have several floors of won’t let you press any elevator buttons besides the floor you work on.

  108. 108.

    Jay

    @TenguPhule:

    Nope, in much of the west, the death of a loved one has become as antiseptic and outsourced as the plastic covered meat on styrofoam trays.

  109. 109.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    @EBT: Valve’s “Steam” as a game publishing platform for third parties is pretty much all their revenue at this point, world wide in scope, with all the hassle of covering each country’s online privacy and financial laws concerning cash equivalent transactions and payment card transactions. Damn sure they have a physical audit log of everyone that comes into that building and a default “minimal access” for all employees, even GabeN.

  110. 110.

    pnein58

    @Baud: Sadly, no. That’s happened more than once in my Army research lab. What’s worse are the years when they CID briefers go full Stasi, and no one notices.

  111. 111.

    satby

    @Calouste: well, to be fair, it’s way more relevant experience than the current illicit occupant of the Oval Office ever had. Mayor Pete seems pretty popular here, that’s really the extent of my knowledge. Seems to be doing the right things in revitalizing the city.

  112. 112.

    efgoldman

    @Kelly:

    I worked for Gigantic Global Tech Corp my cube was in a small rented building near the main campus with absolutely terrible card locks

    I worked at unnamed public broadcasting station in the early 70s in the early days of (magnetic) card swipes. Any card with a magnetic strip worked.

  113. 113.

    SgrAstar

    @Calouste: Buttigieg is a Harvard grad, Rhodes Scholar, and Afghanistan vet. Boxes ticked. I agree he should build up his experience base. Brains and guts, he has.

  114. 114.

    frosty

    @Jay: Well, my siblings and I threw our parents overboard with our own hands, just like they asked.*

    * … to have their ashes comingled and scattered in the Chesapeake Bay.

  115. 115.

    satby

    @Chyron HR: that’s a dick reply to what MaryG expressed. She said, essentially, that Buttigeg is an emerging politician to watch as opposed to the current well known crop. And unlike St. Wilmer, Mayor Pete has had to actually run a multicultural rust belt city and revitalize it on a shoestring. And though people associate the wealthy Notre Dame University with South Bend, it incorporated as it’s own city so it doesn’t contribute any taxes to South Bend.
    He’s an interesting guy, and I hope he goes farther in the Democratic Party too.

  116. 116.

    GxB

    @divF: I’m reading it as three individuals. Oxford frigging comma people – use it, love it.

    And a sawbuck says the mortician/philosopher rides a “fixie”.

  120. 120.

    Jager

    @Omnes Omnibus: The BIL of a friend of mine was an Army Medic in Germany in the early 60’s, he spent two winters as a ski patrolman at German ski areas that catered to GIs and dependents. Great duty!

  126. 126.

    J R in WV

    @frosty:

    @Jay: Well, my siblings and I threw our parents overboard with our own hands, just like they asked.*

    * … to have their ashes comingled and scattered in the Chesapeake Bay.

    My brother and I threw my mom and dad’s ashes into a waterfall they loved, so same, kinda. We cried, even though their deaths were 7 and 1.5 years ago. Or I did, anyway.

  127. 127.

    frosty

    @satby:

    Mayor Pete has had to actually run a multicultural rust belt city and revitalize it on a shoestring.

    He sounds like John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock, PA, who was running in the PA primary to beat Toomey and got shunted aside by the PA Dems and lost. He too was working to revitalize a rusted out Rust Belt town. Also, too, MS from Harvard.

    The D candidate (Katie McGinty) then proceeded to run an uninspiring campaign (IMHO) and I’m left with that execrable R as a senator. I dunno, I think in the climate in 2016 a tattooed, skinhead, bearded, outspoken populist/socialist could have gotten enough Trump voters to win.

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